Steve-C

Integrated graphics processors are getting better all the time. If you are not planning to do a lot of intensive 3D models then a dedicated card is not as important as it used to be. I have a Macbook pro and a Sony Vaio Duo, neither have a dedicated card and both run admirably in 3D. With that said my desktop rig has a GTX 980Ti card and it smokes both laptops obviously, but I can still be fairly productive on either laptop w/o the dedicated card.

Ditto. Huge help when zooming in tight on detail drawings.

I would be interested to hear if tech support resolved this issue. I've use CA X7 and X8 on two Macbook pro laptops and when I use a mouse it's very jerky, the trackpad however is smooth as silk. Fortunately when I'm on the Macbook I'm more inclined to use the trackpad anyway but I don't really have a choice in the matter because of this issue. I have no trouble with the mouse on any other application, only CA. This is also one of the reasons I bailed on my iMac a couple of years back.

Try this LINK By the way, you can get to the Nvidia control panel by right clicking on your desktop. On the drop down menu choose CA.

I've been using CA for 10 years. I had my 1st set of working drawings within a month. Looking back compared to what I turn out now they were crap. It probably took me 2 years before I was proficient with the program but probably 4 or 5 before I really mastered it. Those first few years were difficult because I would run in to situations that I could not resolve without help. Now when I run into an issue I can usually figure it out on my own because I've learned enough about the program to understand how it thinks and what causes certain problems. Occasionally I still need help from tech support but that is rare and usually ends up being a software problem that gets resolved. With that said I would have to give it a 10 as well but it's worth the effort. One piece of advice I would give anyone learning CA is to use the hotkeys. Figure out your most used commands and create your own hotkeys. I've probably cut my design time in half over the years by using this one feature.

I added the crop tool to my perspective view toolbar, it saves a little time.

Figured I would update this thread for the benefit of those who are research junkies like me when it comes to computers. I bought a 15" Macbook Pro recently and many of the issues I had before are no longer a problem. pdf file sizes are larger than my Windows machine but only by maybe 25% to 50% which is nothing compared to the 5 to 10 times larger it used to be. Still not a fan of the color wheel selector vs. the Windows grid color selector but I can live with it. One thing I've noticed with the Mac is the cursor seems a little shaky, nothing major but it's just not as smooth as it is on Windows. I really wanted a Windows laptop that was a decent screen size and portable but after getting an Asus Zenbook Pro that had fans running non-stop and an ultra light dual core unit that lacked power, I decided to pull the trigger on the Macbook. Still a bigger fan of the Windows interface but it's hard to deny what Apple can do in the world of lightweight laptops.

Many thanks!

Prior to X8 this camera view had a fixed point that stayed put when zooming or rotating. Now it seems to jump all over the place, so I'm constantly going back to plan view to center the camera in the plan. Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere?

You should probably get with tech support on that one. By the way, I assume you meant your file was 10MB not GB. Most of my pdf files are usually in the 300KB to 500KB range but I had a Mac for a while that would pump out 5MB to 10MB files nearly every time. Drove me nuts. Wonder if the issue with Mac is similar to the problem you are having.

Are you using a Mac? They tend to create very large pdf files (for whatever reason).

I use Google Drive and One Drive on all 3 PC's with no problems (I also have Carbonite on my main desktop rig). Just keep your files on your dedicated documents drive and copy files to the cloud drives. What I love about One Drive is that when you have Office 365 you get an entire TB of cloud storage. I've linked my phone to back up all my pics on that drive. Works like a charm.

PC is better for me personally. Like Ray mentioned, you will get differing opinions. I've used both extensively and they do differ in some areas concerning the interface. PC version fits my needs better.

Do you check alignment over wall below? Agree with Michael, different color walls sometimes have that effect in elevation view.

Negative. The monitor was $500 and worth every stinkin' penny!

I agree with Perry, pretty good choice for the $$. Those of us that seem to live on the computer tend to over-spend. The Puget Spirit desktop rig in my signature was about $2600 but it is ridiculously fast.

Interesting. Thanks Jonathan. Too bad that doesn't seem to work for polyline molding but good info though.

Well there ya go.....many thanks Greg. I suppose I should have asked this years ago.

I've been battling this for years, every time I create a 3d molding radius in an elevation it's never very smooth. It usually looks like a series of straight lines made to look like an arch. This one isn't too bad but I think the worst application is when I use it for a radius brick arch. Most of the time if it looks really rough I'll just CAD line it in. Does anyone know a way around this?

I can vouch for this card, it's screaming fast. I wouldn't waste my money on that set up evergreen, I spent about $2600 on the desktop rig in my signature (excluding the monitor) and I could not be happier. It's comparable in the quality of specs that I got on my last Puget desktop rig which still runs well at nearly 5 years old.

I concur

I agree with Michael, just create a new wall that looks like that one. Of course, surface layer specs may come into play at some point.

I can't answer that one peteandra, I sold my Mac to my sister-in-law. Another thing I remembered about the Mac, it was a bit of a RAM hog. I upgraded to 32gb shortly after I bought it but it still managed to use in excess of 16gb on a regular basis. I thought that was kind of strange but after doing a little research I found that it was not that uncommon.

Open object DBX, go to "layer" then click "define" to open the display options. At the bottom of the display list is an option to copy. You can copy the existing layer and give it a new name then turn it on/off as needed in different views.

I bought a 27" iMac around the time the Mac version of CA came out. The first few months were rough but CA finally ironed out enough details for the system to be usable. My issues with the Mac experience are as follows: 1) I was not thrilled with the way the Mac OS was using color selections in 3D. Can't remember the specifics but I recall there was a big difference between the PC and Mac OS in this area. The color wheel thing kind of annoyed me. There were other slight differences between the two that kind of bugged me but nothing major. 2) Crashing - I'm sure this has been ironed out by now but I used the iMac for almost a year and still kept getting crashes. Tech support and I were on a first name basis. 3) I'm not sure if it was my system or the software, but for some reason I was not getting the responsiveness with the mouse that I got with my PC. I tried several mice, wired and wireless on different settings with the same result. 4) PDF file sizes. For whatever reason PDF file sizes were on average 4 or 5 times larger than the size of the same files I created on my PC machines. This was the biggest pain when trying to email files. 5) There was an annoying lag with some commands (mainly roof commands, even in 2D) that I could never seem to get rid of. 6) Monitor/price - unless I was willing to pay an insane amount for a Mac pro (plus a monitor), I was relegated to the 27" form factor. My current monitor is 32" which I love, so much so that I may up-size next year. 7) Graphics card upgrades. The iMac system I bought was as good as it got a couple of years ago. It even had an Nvidea card but it was a mobile version. It still ran pretty well considering this. However, I currently have an Nvidia GTX 980 Ti and it is insanely fast. Now it seems that Apple has adopted an all AMD graphics card line up. AMD is not my favorite although it's a lot better than it used to be. With all that said, I love the Mac OS and would still be using it exclusively if I had better results. After using the iMac for nearly a year I actually switched back to my 4 year old (at the time) Puget PC and it still out-performed the iMac. I did however recently purchase the Puget PC in my sig and it is so screaming fast I doubt I will ever go back to a Mac. Take it all for what it's worth but that's my 2 cents. Your mileage may vary.